J'adore Montréal!

Greg and I usually take an annual vacation somewhere or other at the time of our anniversary (in August). This year, since our destination was to the north, we decided to go early in hopes of longer daylight hours and warmer days. So last week we ventured to Canada and spent 3 days in Montreal and one day in Ottawa with friends. In theory, this gave me ample chance to practice my French. In reality, I said the following things:

• Bonjour!
• Très bien!
• Merci!
• Nous avons des amis en Ottawa.
• Mon amie deteste les poissons, alors je (um, um) prendre un photo pour elle - ?? (starting to get iffy here, you see.)
• Nous sommes marchés beaucoup hier.

Unfortunately, turns out that that last sentence was incorrect. She corrected me very nicely (Nous avons marché beaucoup hier) but I think that I gave up at that point. Also, the last three were to my pedicurist, who was kind of a captive audience. Sigh.

Fish pedicure!

I made the valiant attempt to do my Wednesday Salvo-ing while there, but their stores are not our stores. I was slightly horrified. However, they do have one major advantage:

I'm making that as large as possible so we can all see what we have here. Those are size tags. Yes, friends, our northern neighbors understand how a thrift store should be run. Dear American Salvos, put things on there by sizes, for crying out loud! 

Anyway, there was one other thing that Montreal did very, very well. Food is always my favorite part of every trip and this one was no exception.

Salmon with mango chutney.

Margherita pizza (Greg's)

Smoked salmon tapa

Chorizo tapa

Tuna with bruschetta tapa

More smoked salmon (with capers, yum!) tapas

Steak et frites

Crème brulée!!!!

Spicy lamb curry for him, chicken curry with spinach for me.

 I'd call that a successful vacation!

I'll leave you with this - we stumbled upon the 30th anniversary of the "Village" in Montréal, and this, which appeared to be their motto. I wish it was everyone's.

D'accord.